Big Event Archives

Welcome to my big events page. Here, I will be going over sports not listed in my pages, big events in all types of sports on a certain day, weekend, month, or year in the world of sports.

Jake Yono

JY Journalism

10/25/25

Red Bull Extreme Sports

Most general people and sports fans consider Red Bull as an energy company and a beverage company. If sports fans have paid attention to some minority sports, you would recognize that Red Bull has a Major League Soccer team (MLS) and 3 other soccer teams across the world; they also own a hockey team, a Formula 1 team, which currently has arguably the best racer, Max Verstappen, and a motorcycle racing club. If you have watched other lower minority sports, you will recognize that the whole league is owned by Red Bull, or in bigger organizations, major athletes have the Red Bull sponsor, such as Mondo Duplantis (Athletics), Lindsey Vonn (Skiing), Summer Mcintosh (Swimming), Caroline Marks (Surfing), and Trinity Rodman (Soccer). These stars and many others have the Red Bull sponsor, and they sponsor athletes and own teams across 50 sports globally (Red Bull). In this article, I will be diving into some of the craziest sports Red Bull has to put on across the globe.

Most of the leagues the company facilitates are sports that are not general at all, giving them the title of extreme in which I will be writing about today. Let’s begin with cliff diving, where divers in tropical areas must jump off platforms up to 85ft and are graded based on diving standards. The practice and sport of cliff diving existed for about 200 years, but Red Bull founded the Cliff Diving World Series in 2009, which has existed ever since giving professionals a platform to showcase their tremendous skills and bravery. Next, we will stay up in the air, where Red Bull popularized the sport of air racing, where pilots in little 2-person propeller planes race around a designated course. Red Bull got involved in 2003, where they created the first competitive stationed organization led by Peter Besenyei (Red Bull Air Racing). This is considered an extreme sport because when we see planes in the sky, they usually are by themselves if not in a military formation, but Red Bull has taken this idea to new heights by professionalizing Competitive Air Racing. Another 2 sports in which this company is involved are skydiving and paragliding, where they sponsor athletes and teams and are involved with the governing body (FAI). Red Bull has this involvement of teams and athletes in other sports but what makes them very special is that they host premier events such as Red Bull X-Alps, where athletes have 2 weeks to hike and paraglide across the Swiss Alps. This sport is very dangerous because athletes can get lost in the mountains or get stuck in a tree when gliding. Next, a sport most have not heard of, which is ice gliding racing on crashed ice where racers on ice skates go around a laid out course and see who gets the fastest time, this sport is extreme because it can cause many injuries, Red Bull does host premiere events of this sport such as “Crashed Ice” in Fenway Park, Boston, MA. If you guys would like to check this out even further, here's a video on it (Crashed Ice Fenway Park 2019). Another sport that is not necessarily extreme is mountain biking, where Red Bull has 2 of the biggest races in Red Bull Rampage and Joyride, which attract major world-class cyclists from around the world on courses through the woods that are not friendly if you make a mistake, as you may run into a tree or wipe out on a turn. The last extreme sport I would like to highlight is that Red Bull is investing in ultra

running, as they sponsor some of the best events and runners. First, I would like to highlight the Red Bull 400, which is a grueling 400-mile race mostly uphill ski mountains to challenge the best runners in the world. Another unique opportunity Red Bull offers in ultra racing is the Wings for Life Run, in which runners are chased by a pace car, and they are out if the car passes them, and the last runner standing wins. This event was started by Red Bull and has become a global running phenomenon that all people would like to try once in their lives. A famous runner this company sponsors is Courtney Darweimer, who is known for beating most males in these grueling 200+ mile races. The last sport I would like to highlight of the many Red Bull sponsors and puts on is not necessarily extreme, but is definitely on the rise, and it's breaking. Red Bull basically brought up the league in its midst and gave premier sponsorships to its best athletes in this new uprising sport, and I appreciate how Red Bull is giving these deserving dancers a platform to showcase their impeccable skills.

In the end, all of these sports are broadcast on Red Bulls TV network and streaming service, and I really like their business model of taking up all the sports that no one or no company tends to take up. Red Bull is a fascinating company, and it’s so cool to see their unique perspective on entering the sports and social media world. No company has ever done this, and I wanted to share this with you guys today. I hope you enjoy it.

Jake Yono

JY Journalism

2/10/25

My Recap Of The 2025 Millrose Games

Welcome back, everybody. This article will go in my Big Event Archives section because if you're unfamiliar with the Millrose Games, it is a professional indoor track meet held at the famous Nike Armory in NYC each year. I am so excited to bring you guys this recap because it’s gonna be the first time I'm writing about a track meet that wasn't the Olympics. With this, I’m currently pondering on later developing a page strictly for Track and Field, but I don’t have enough columns to do so, so maybe in the future? With this in mind, let’s start recapping this world-class championship-level track meet.

One thing I appreciate and admire about Track and Field and all individual sports is that if you're younger and good enough, you can move up to the next level. We have seen this play out with Quincy Wilson running on the Team USA 4x400 relay team in this past Paris Olympics, In Ladies' Professional Golf, Rose Zhang made her debut and won the event while she was still in college, and the craziest example of this I can find is Serena Willams making her WTA debut at 14 years old (Her Crip Walk was impeccable at Super Bowl LIX). The Millrose Games showcased a lot of this; the other way of showcasing amateur talent is by having certain fields designed for lower-level athletes at professional events, and the Millrose Games has both of these forms of middle schoolers (competing against middle schoolers) being in the same spotlight as gold medalists. I’m going to start with the Inevitable best action on the track, which was the men's 3k, where it was a showdown between Cole Hocker and Grant Fisher, who met in the middle of their Olympic distances in Hocker running the 1500 and Fisher, who usually does the 5000 and 10000. The 2 men got away from the rest of the field, and it felt like it was just them 2 out there. Grant Fisher was leading the 1st ¾ of the event until with 4 laps to go Hocker made a move and got in front of Fisher, though still within striking distance Fisher with 400 meters to go maintained 1st place held off Hocker and broke the indoor world record with a time of 7.22.91  while doing so and him and Hocker was a half a second behind making them both the 4th and 5th fastest times run in history at this distance. 10 men in this field ended up running lifetime personal bests; that’s what happens when 2 Olympic medalists are leading the pack.

Next, we will stay with the professional men and move on to the Men's Wanamaker Mile, where Yared Naguose, who claimed bronze in Paris in the 1500m, ran an indoor world record with a time of 3.46.63 and would put him in the top 10 in history for the fastest mile thrown down. I also would like to speak about Hobbs Kessler, who was right on his tail the entire time and ran 3:46.9. He is only 21 years old and already an Olympian compared to Negosse, who is 25 years of age. Next, another event on the longer side, the 800 went down where American Josh Hoey took the world indoor lead, throwing down a time of 1.43.9 to defeat fellow American Bryce Hoppel. Also, in this performance, Hoey set a US National Indoor Record. Stepping away from distance, I would like to highlight the professional men's 60m hurdles, which were won by former unsponsored Walmart employee Dylan Beard of the US, who, in his time of 7.38, set a Millrose Games record and took the indoor season world lead in the event. His story is remarkable, and the best part is that after he made the Olympic trials go unsponsored, Walmart Corporate sponsored him, and it’s listed on the results (117th Millrose Games). For my last analysis of the men in this meet, I will be showcasing the men's 600 where phenom 16-year-old Quincy Wilson was competing but struggled against the field but led himself to a lifetime best. The leader of this race, Will Sumner, ran a world-leading time of 1.14.04, which was also good enough for a world-leading time in the indoor-only event.

Now let’s turn over to the women in this historic Millrose Games, and they had many astonishing performances. A quick note I would like to start by saying I’m astonished to say that In Washington, the executive order has been signed to ban men from playing in women's sports (Keeping Men Out Of Womens Sports Executive Order 2/5/25) along with the “only 2 genders act signed by Trump” this directly corresponds as already the NCAA has taken account and the Olympic Committee is reviewing it right now and there is a possibility they could enact this rule. With this let’s transcend to the women at the Millrose Games, starting in the field I will be showcasing the pole vault where Olympic silver medalist from team USA Katie Moon won the event and good enough for a world lead and it was 0.13m off her lifetime best of 4.95m as she vaulted 4.82m. On the track, I'm gonna begin in the 400m where a member of the gold medalist 4x400 team in Paris, Alexis Holmes, ran a 51.21, good enough for a win and a season-best. In the half-mile, a woman who honestly I had not heard of before from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Shafiqua Maloney, finished 4th in Paris in this event. Today, she won the Roses in a time of 1.59.07 for a world lead.  Moving up to the women's mile, Englishwomen Georgia Bell took the win in a field where there was no clear outright favorite coming into the race as athletes such as Heather MacLean who is on the rise after missing out on Paris 2024, Sinclaire Johnson, Kenyan Susan Lokayo Ejore, and Nicki Hiltz who spoke out against the new Executive Order which can be found here (U.S. track star Nikki Hiltz speaks out against Trump's transgender athlete ban). Back to the race, Georgia Bell claimed her first major international win at the Armory, beating Heather MacLean by 0.06 hundredths of a second running 4.23.35, a new lifetime best. The best women's event of the games was the 3k, where US star Whitani Morgan, the Olympian who finished 14th in the 5k track final in Paris, had a performance coming from a track athlete here truly everybody would like to have. The favorites going into this race were Josette Andrews and Australian star Jessica Hull. Morgan was a slight favorite, but no one expected this race to play out how it did. The entire race until up to 2600 m Morgan was cruising in 6th and dropped the hammer in the last 400 where she negatively split, leading up to this point she was averaging around 34.5 seconds for every 200 until the 2nd to last lap she ran a 31.3s and on the bell lap she hit a 28.93s split. This negative split is remarkable and hard to manage and maintain in track and field, but Morgan did it. Also, I would like to state that her last 1k was 8 seconds faster than her second K. That's 1.6 seconds per lap, which is huge if you are deep in track and field. This was the most remarkable women's performance I’ve seen at the Millrose Games by far.

` Concluding this article, I would like to state that Athletics should be talked about more in the grand scheme of sports, and I’m trying to improve this awareness. Also, I would like to highlight the high school boys and girls' mile, and these kids are fast. Starting in the girl's division, the senior from New York Dylan McElhinney won the field, took first from the gun, and never looked back. This led her to a 4:42 lead to a top 5 time in the nation. On the boy's side, the senior from Georgia Tommy Latham almost broke 4 minutes as he hit 4.00.94, this time was good enough for a meet record and a #2 time in the nation behind Owen Powell, also I would like to highlight fellow runner from Michigan whom I shared the course with T.J Hansen at the state championships who finished 3rd in this field running a 4.04.52 close to his personal best. These athletes at the 2025 Millrose Games at the Armory in NYC are truly impeccable. In the future, I hope to make more articles about intriguing track and field meets to further grow the sport. Thank You. 

The most impressive performances at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris

Jake Yono

8/11/24 

JY Journalism

The 2024 Paris Olympic Games were truly remarkable, with 39 terrific sports all being played at the highest level in some of the greatest venues in the historic city of Paris. In this article, I will discuss the most impressive performances of the games and the individuals in their disciplines, showcasing their path to glory in Paris. I am not just going to focus on the top athletes but on what I believe were the most impressive performances at the games.

The first individual I will be discussing is the most outstanding athlete at the games, French swimmer Leon Marchand. In his first Olympic Games, he put on a show for his home nation's fans, winning four gold medals in the 200m breaststroke, the 400m medley, the 200m medley, and the 200m butterfly, where the French faithful cheered every single time he surfaced from the pool. His four golds at his first Olympic Games put him in the same category as great American swimmers Mark Spitz and Michael Phelps, as he is coached by the same coach as these two legends of the sport. As Leon is just getting his career started on the world swimming circuit, he is shaping himself into a true icon of the sport.

Staying in the pool, the next outstanding performance goes to 17-year-old Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh. Unlike Leon Marchand, this was not her first Olympic Games, as she competed in the Tokyo 2020 Games at just 14 years of age, making her the youngest member of Team Canada. Swimming in the 400m, 800m, 200m, and 4x200m relay, she helped her team finish 4th. She is truly the next generation of swimming, and at just 17 in Paris, she took three golds in the 200m butterfly, the individual medley, and the 400m medley, as well as a silver in the 400m freestyle. Summer is currently a three-time Olympic champion, six-time world champion, and the world record holder in the 400m IM. McIntosh is truly a staple for the next generation of swimmers both inside and outside of the pool, as she has many sponsors on her website and is very active on Instagram, which has led many companies to invest in her, such as the action sports company Red Bull, Lululemon, Tag Heuer, and Air Canada. Summer is taking professional swimming by storm, and it's going to take a lot of firepower to catch her.

Now, let's turn to the United States of America, where we find road and track cyclists Kristen Faulkner and Jennifer Valente. Coming into the games, Team USA cycling, both road and track, had been at a low point, snapping a drought dating back to the 1984 L.A. games. These two women both won two golds: Kristen won the 98-mile road race through the streets of Paris, and Jennifer took home gold in the track Omnium event. For their second gold medal, both of these women helped the pursuit team on the track bring another gold to the US. On the track for Team USA, Gabby Thomas impressed with three gold medals in the 4x100m, 4x200m, and 200m dash, meaning that in all three of her events, she won gold—a massive improvement from Tokyo, where she only took silver in the 4x100m and bronze in the 200m.

Leaving the track, we go to Sweden, where another world record in the pole vault was broken by Mondo Duplantis, the reigning gold medalist from Tokyo 2020 and two-time world champion. Just to put this in perspective, out of the top 40 pole vaults of all time, Mondo is listed 21 times on the list. His final attempt in Paris at 6.25m broke his world record, leading him to his second consecutive gold medal. The Netherlands produced track and road marathon stars Femke Bol and Sifan Hassan. Femke anchored the mixed 4x400m relay and kicked hard at the end with her strong short-strided legs, making it look like she was barely making an effort. She took bronze in the 400m hurdles and anchored her team to silver in the 4x400m with Team USA almost running a world record, a massive improvement compared to Tokyo in 2021, where she only took bronze in the 400m hurdles. Femke Bol is more of a short-distance runner, while another woman from the Netherlands, Sifan Hassan, is a true distance runner. Unlike the other athletes I mentioned, the 31-year-old competed in Rio in 2016 in the 1500m, where she finished 5th. Then she came back to Tokyo and took gold in the 5000m and 10000m and bronze in the 1500m. This performance alone would make it onto my list, as doing six long races, including prelims and semis, in two weeks and medaling in all of them is truly amazing. In this Olympiad, Sifan gave up the 1500m and switched to the marathon while still competing in the 5000m and 10000m. She won the marathon on the last day of competition and still managed to win two bronzes in the 5k and 10k, making her an absolute machine in the women's track and road racing world.

In male cycling, the two best athletes were Remco Evenepoel of Belgium and Harrie Lavreysen of the Netherlands. First, Remco dominated the road circuit, winning gold in the road race, which lasted 170 miles, and the time trial, which was 20 miles long, making him the most decorated road cyclist at the games. On the cycling track, Harrie Lavreysen won three golds in all three of his events—the Keirin, the individual sprint, and the team sprint—making him by far the most awarded track cyclist at the games. Next, let's turn to Greco-Roman wrestling, where one man has been dominating the 130kg division for four straight Olympic Games with four gold medals—Mijain Lopez Nunez from Cuba. With his gold medal finish in his final match and his retirement this year, Mijain was selected to be an Olympic committee flag bearer for the closing ceremony. I had to include him in this article, as he is the only Olympic athlete of all time to have five gold medals in the same event.

In the surfing competition, I would like to highlight Caroline Marks of Team USA. In her first Olympics, she took home gold by only 0.17 of a point in the gold medal match. In the second edition of surfing at the games, Caroline represented Team USA in style in her first games at 22 years of age. She is active on YouTube and Instagram, and her main flagship partner is Red Bull Extreme Sports, which supports her through her surfing journey. Surfing is a sport that should stay in the Olympic Games, as it takes skill, bravery, and the ability to read the wave in competition. The last impressive athlete I'm focusing on is Yusuf Dikec, the Turkish air pistol shooter who competed in the mixed-team event and went viral for using no equipment and keeping his hand in his pocket. Some background info on him: he is a retired soldier and police officer in Turkey, and this is his fifth Olympic Games, dating back to Beijing in 2008. He helped his team win back-to-back world cups in the 10m air pistol team events. So to all the fans who have misconceptions about him, Yusuf was not called out of the army; he has been a pro shooter for his nation for over 20 years.

Wrapping up this article, I chose the most impressive performances to talk about in-depth. Now I will explain some more of the best performances. In women's gymnastics, Suni Lee from the US took bronze in the all-around and uneven bars, while Simone Biles won gold on the floor. Both of these women, along with Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera, contributed to team gold. In track, Team USA's men's and women's 4x400m relay teams both won gold, but in the 4x100m, the men fell short due to handoff mishaps. In the women's race, the handoff between Melissa Jefferson and Twanisha Terry was very shaky, but the anchor, Sha'Carri Richardson, came back and won gold for the US. The queen of the 400m hurdles, Sydney McLaughlin, showed out again with no competition in her event, which led to another world record of her own. Like Mondo, out of the top 35 marks of all time, Sydney holds 13 of them, including the world record set in the final. On the men’s distance side, Cole Hocker beat the Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen with his kick down the home stretch for gold. In the 5000m and 10000m races, Grant Fisher qualified at the trials in June, and in the Olympics, he came from behind to take bronze in both of these races, leaving a huge mark on world distance running for the United States.

In swimming, Katie Ledecky and Kate Dougan continued their dominance, winning a combined eight medals and contributing to the 19 that the women’s swimming team won for the US. Australia challenged them the whole way with their trash talk and execution to back it all up, as they had the second-most swimming medals in the competition with 18 compared to the US's 28. I would like to shout out the USA women’s soccer team for winning gold, led by Trinity Rodman, Sophia Smith, and captain Lindsey Horan, for their fifth gold medal and seventh in the seven editions of women’s soccer at the Olympics. In Rugby Sevens, the USA women beat Australia to take home bronze for their first Olympic medal, led by Ilona Maher, marking a big moment for American rugby. Last but not least, of the four new sports I wrote about in my preview article, breaking was by far my favorite one. Three rounds of dancing on and off between competitors, scored by judges with music they did not know beforehand, is what they must dance to. Unlike gymnastics, where gymnasts get to choose the music they do their routine to, most breakers do come from a gymnastics background. Starting in the Bronx, NY, in the '70s, the nicknames B-Boy and B-Girl have stuck up to the games in their debut. Canada’s 27-year-old B-Boy Phil Wizard and Japan's 25-year-old B-Girl Ami took home the first golds at the inaugural event. Breaking was quite interesting to all fans, even to me, but I love it. Wrapping up the Olympics, all of the athletes across the 39 sports have something to be proud of, as they are truly the best athletes in the world. Today I showcased some of them in their truly outstanding performances against world-class competition. Thanks for checking this one out.

Paris 2024 Preview

Jake Yono

JY Journalism

7/19/24

Today officially marks one week out from the 2024 Olympics in Paris where we will see the best athletes in the world showcase their skills on a worldwide stage. In this article entry, I will be giving you guys a preview of the games the sharing my concerns and disputes about the Olympic games as a whole spanning from July 24th to August 11th.

The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics contains 32 sports in total from Swimming, Soccer, Track and Field, Basketball, Golf, Martial Arts, and many more. There are 3 sports the committee discontinued and 4 more they added for the 2024 games. First, the 3 discontinued sports are Karate, Baseball, and Softball. Karate was taken out because of its low viewership and that were other mixed martial arts in the competition such as  Wrestling, Boxing, Judo, and Taekwondo. Baseball and Softball were taken out because it conflicts with the MLB and professional softball seasons, these 2 sports are set to return to the 2028 games in L.A. The 4 new and interesting sports added to the games are Surfing, Breaking, Sport Climbing, and Skateboarding. All of these sports have gained enough competitors, leagues, and a following to become Olympic sports. The games will be just a tad bit different this go around but overall they will remain the same coming off the Tokyo 2020 Olympics which took place in 2021 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic (Olympic Sports Article NBC).  

Although all the Olympic sports are available to watch through NBC's streaming service Peakcock, I will not be watching all of them as I would have to be glued to the TV all day. The sports I will be focusing on are Basketball, Athletics, Soccer, and Golf. I will be checking on others but these are my favorite sports to watch in the Olympic games. In basketball Team USA has a loaded team and is going for gold again with members of Steph Curry, Lebron Games, Anthony Edwards, and some of the NBA's greatest stars. In Athletics, I will be watching the whole thing both men and women as I constantly am following the sport in which I compete, from Noah Lyles in the sprints to Grant Fisher in the 10,000m, sadly track, and field is an underappreciated sport on the professional level. I appreciate how NBC gave it attention during the US Olympic team trials in which the 10-day event reached record highs in viewership. Track and Field is going to be an amazing thrill as there will be high-flying action with world-class athletes running, jumping, and throwing on a world-class stage. In golf, the 4-man team consists of high-ranking Fed-Ex cup point players Collin Morikawa, Wyndham Clark, the 2020 gold medalist Xander Schufalate, and the #1 in world golf ranking points Scottie Scheffler. One thing that concerns me about Olympic golf is that there's no team aspect, these athletes are on Team USA but it is just a title because the whole team cannot win a medal only 1 athlete. It would be very interesting to find out which country has the best golfers in the world and where they get the gold, silver, and bronze medals, I think this would empower Olympic golf to another level as the players who aren't in medal contention still have something to play for (Olympic Golf is all wrong). Moving onto the last sport I will be closely following in these games is soccer, although Team USA's men's and women's clubs are currently in a recession, soccer at a world-class level is still an amazing treat to watch for South American and European national teams. Euro 2024 and Copa America gave us a preview of world-class soccer with Spain and Argentina taking home those championships. Those teams and only France can win gold at Paris 2024 in this 4-group 16-team field.

The Olympic games have always been a controversial topic, to why what teams are allowed to compete due to issues they've had in the past, interfering with a professional league season causing some athletes to opt-out, and on if the infrastructure of the host country and city can handle it before, during, and after the games. For this article, I will be focusing on Paris's infrastructure for the games. In the past what has led people to protest is temporary stadiums and venues being built just for the games, France and the city of Paris have done a great job combatting this as most of the buildings already have a use in being for club teams, concerts, and or other shows in the city. For instance, all 7 soccer venues already have a use, the basketball venues are in use, and the Palace of Versailles is where the equestrian and the modern pentathlon will be taking place. These are all current facilities that can house certain sports, my concern is the temporarily built stadiums and their impact on the city. It would be horrible for Paris to turn out how Brazil and Athens have turned out after the 2016 Rio Olympics and 2004 games in Athens as those facilities are abandoned now and have no use at all. When these venues built just for the Olympics are built the committee always says they will keep and maintain the facilities after the event but in these cases, this was not the case (Olympic Venues After Use). It would be amazing if these facilities could be used after the games for the public and/or competition or practice, this has been accomplished in the past but not in Brazil and Athens, it is a shame to see nothing going on with these once beautiful facilities, I know it's a waste of money but tearing down stadiums after use if they have no purpose after the games are acceptable for me so it doesn't look like a dump after. My solution to this problem is for the Olympic committee to select 5 or 6 cities that have the infrastructure for the games and go in that rotation and while this is happening other cities can slowly build the venues needed to contest these games and host future Olympic games, this means fewer cities have the opportunity to corrupt after the Olympics and during the rotation more cities can build in hope of getting approval from the committee.

Wrapping up Paris 2024 is suiting up to be one for the ages as athletes from a total of the world different kinds of sports at the highest level. Although the event still has a ton of viewership, I mentioned a couple of downsides today to make you aware of them, starting on July 24th over 10,000 athletes from just about every nation will be taking the stage and going for gold this season of the summer Olympics live from the great city of Paris.

Universal Studios Orlando

Jake Yono

JY Journalsim

4/5/24

Hey everyone, in this article I will not be mentioning sports at all but I will indeed be talking about my trip to Universal Studios in Orlando Flordia I just returned from last week, on this trip, my family stayed at the new Evermore Orlando Resort just 25 minutes from the park, a unique entity of the Evermore is that it has a man-made lagoon with sand surrounding it. I enjoyed this as there was also a beautiful golf course which I did not play well on. One complaint about this new resort is that the swim areas around the lagoon were very tiny as there was kayaking going on but it did not take up much space, also the security was very advanced and they did not let it play football in the small swimming zone. I’m giving the resort a break on this because they are just figuring this out as the resort opened in January of this year. This article entry is not about the resort it is going to be about Universal Studios which I and my family visited I went on every ride because I was blessed with the privilege of Universal Express Unlimited.

My first statement about this overall great park is that there were too many simulation rides except the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, I get it that it’s a studio but there were way too many attractions where you were stationary and the ride was moving a little bit such as the Minions Illumination ride and the Jimmy Fallon ride, for this ride I liked the queue which went over the Tonights Show history and some of the NBC history the ride didn’t live up to it as your just stationary the whole time and you're barely moving, although there were rides like this, there were some simulations that were moving in the ride in which my favorite one was the mummy ride, Fast and Furious had an amazing queue and story, the Simpsons ride was mostly stationary but also very funny at the same time, Men in Black Alien attack moved a little bit but it had an interactive shooting game with it. My least favorite attraction was the Minion Villian Con, it was just a game where you shoot at things on a screen pretty boring. Recapping all of this the Islands of Adventure park is more for thrill seekers while the Universal Studios park is more for simulation seekers who want a nice story with their ride. It was still very fun because of the Rip Ride Rockit but I will check out Islands of Adventure next time as there are more thrill-seeking rides there.

Let's now talk about the rides I enjoyed, for the most part, my obvious #1 for this park was the Hollywood Rip-Ride-Rockit, this was completely different from all the other attractions because it was a roller coaster and every single ride was some sort of simulation with some soft of the level of action, On the Rip-Ride-Rockit, I enjoyed how there were 2 main event worthy level drops, this is different from the standard roller coaster where it has 1 big main drop and the rest of the ride is below that level, Universal makes an excellent effort to create this thrill in their rides, in their other park Islands of Adventure the Vellosicoaster has a big acceleration in the middle leading up to the big drop and a barrel roll at the end, I love the music you get to choose because it makes you feel like that main character in Hollywood with your choice of background music. Overall this ride is an amazing part of Universal Studios.

How about we continue to the simulation rides where the 1 with the most action by far was Revenge of The Mummy with an indoor roller coaster track dropping and going forwards and backward, it also contained many elements such as water, wind, fire, no other rides in my opinion compared to this because the level of movement was low and stable. I’m not bringing hatred to any other rides but to me the action the more fun for me. Every ride was enjoyable because of the movement, humor, elements, interactions, Queues, and stories. The first ride I went on was the Minions ride, this contained a very long story in the queue and some action but not much on the actual ride. #2 was the Race Through New York with Jimmy Fallon, the queue had the NBC history in it and prefromers to resemble the Jimmy Fallon show, then I checked out the Transformers Ride which had a shorter less detailed queue but was a huge step up from the Minions and Jimmy Fallon overall a good ride, then the Rip-Ride Rockit which is self explanatory, then the Mummy ride which was #1 on my list for simulation rides of the park, after this was the Simpsons ride which was the best stationary simulation to me, after was MEN IN BLACK Alien Attack which was a slow moving simulation but had an interactive shooting game to get involved, then it was Fast and Furious Supercharged which I really loved the realastic queue and beat “BT Race Wars” and it had an amazing story, then Harry Potter which had some sort ov moving simulation but a mediacore ride of the many at both of the combined parks, then it was ET Adventure which was on the older side of attractions but still a good story but vary little movement on the ride itself, lastly my lease favorite ride was the Minions Villian Con which all you are doing is shooting at things with guns on a screen which is basically a video game, not my favorite kind of thrill.

To wrap it up Universal Studios in my opinion has way too many simulations and not enough rides it’s a life-changing park as some of the simulations have amazing details and queues such as Jimmy Fallon, Fast and Furious, and the Simpsons. Also, we cannot forget about the Hollywood Rip-Ride-Rockit in which you can pick your music and secret songs and it has 2 main drops in an all-star thrill-streaking ride. I also would like to say that I love how Universal pays attention to detail like no other in the queues with the characters, scenes, and artifacts, and throughout your whole experience. A park-like Cedar Point has higher thrills but almost nothing in the queue. This is a very debatable topic as to what riders prefer, a less thrill ride with more experience, or a high thrill with no experience at all. I have pictures and videos at the end of this article from my experience if you would like to check them out. Universal Studios Orlando is an amazing place for people who want to have an experience while still partaking in a thrill.

Minions Villian Con Queue Universal Globe (Day)

Jimmy Fallon Queue Universal Globe (Night)

Jake Yono

JY Journalism 

7/15/23

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup Preview

With the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup beginning on July 20th, I will give you guys a preview of what to expect, who and what to watch for storylines, and of course my predictions. 

To begin, the women's World Cup this year will be played in Australia and New Zealand across 10 different stadiums. The favorites in the women’s world cup are the United States at +225, England at +275, Germany at +650, Spain at +700, France at +800, Sweden at +1400, the Netherlands at +1800, and Canada at +2500 (cbssports.com). I believe that these and the host country Australia valued at +1200 right behind France can win the world cup.

The headlining outright storyline of this tournament is “Can the United States 3-peat for the first time in men's or women's FIFA World Cup History”. I think Team USA can do it but it will be a lot harder because of the talent they lost when they cruises through the 2019 World Cup. First of all, at coach legendary coach Jill Ellis has stepped down and has been replaced by Vlatko Andonovski for the Tokyo 2020 Games in 2021 where the team finished with a bronze medal with Canada Beating Sweden in the final to take gold. Andonovski still needs to find this new team as last fall they lost 3 games in a row for the first time in 30 years (SI Kids Vol. 35 No. 4). In February of 2023 Team USA won the SheBelieves Cup to bounce back into the winner's circle. The notable former world cup athletes not playing for Team USA in the world cup are Tienna Davidson, Mallory Swanson, Samantha Mewis, and the Hall of Famer carli lloyd. Half of the entire team from the last world cup is not playing this year due to injury, retirement, and personal reasons. But the US has a lot of returning players from the 2019 championship team such as Alex Morgan, Meagan Rapinoe, Kelly O’Hara, Rose Lavelle, Lindsay Horan, Andi Sullivan, Julie Ertz, and more. The young players for Team USA are Sophia Smith, Trinity Rodman, and breakout star Alyssa Thompson. Vlatko Andonovski stated that “he likes what he's seen between the vets and the kid's mix so far because their gonna half to pass that on” (SI Kids Vol. 35 No. 4). Hopefully, this can propel Team USA in the 2023 FIFA Womens World Cup.

The Notable players from Teams USAs compassion in the world cup are Merle Frohms (VFL Wolfsburg) from Germany, Wendie Renard (Club Lyon) from France, Sam Keer (Chelsea FC) from the host country Australia, Alexia Putellas (FC Barcelona), and the Affrican Asisat Oshoala (FC Barcelona). These players and many others should make a difference for their teams in the world cup. The groups I will be watching out for are Group B with the Aussies and Canada, Group E with the United States and The Netherlands, Group F with France and Brazil, and Group G with Italia, South Africa, and Sweden. I will be watching the 2019 Final rematch between the USA and the Netherlands on July 27th in Group E, and the Olympic Gold Medalist Canada facing off against the host country Australia in Group B on July 31st. 

This FIFA World Cup should not be a cakewalk for the USA as it was in 2019 because their team is still good but it has changed a lot, there are a lot of other contenders such as England, Spain, Germany, Canada, France, and Australia with other superstar players competing. I believe Team USA will pull off this world cup win as it will not be like the Olympic Games where their new players and coach were still developing. Now I think the team has jelled and starting on July 20th we should have an outstanding FIFA Women's World Cup hosted by the Nations of Australia and New Zealand. 

Jake Yono

JY Journalism

3/27/23

The Greatest 2 Weeks of the Sports Year

A spinoff of Jim Nantz’s article in Golf Digest

         Hello, my people, Today I’m going to be analyzing and breaking down Jim Nantz announcer for CBS who calls the NCAA Tournament (March Madness) and the Masters the week after the Final Four of the men’s basketball tournament.

         This year the final four and the national championship are on the weekend of April 1st. Then the masters are starting April 6th and going through Sunday, April 9th. I personally believe that CBS has got itself the greatest 2 sporting events of the entire calendar year. There really is no other period in the year where it is just constant exciting sporting events back-to-back. My other very underdog contender is during October when the MLB World Series is on, the NFL is in full traction, the NBA is on, and College Football and NCAAB are starting up.  Even with these having a thrilling end to the March Madness championship than a historic weekend at Augusta National Golf Club I think all of this beats out the MLB World Series and all of the other pro leagues that I mentioned in their regular seasons all at the same time in the spooky month of October. 

The network CBS has got themselves the greatest period of time in the American sports year. In 2010 CBS and the NCAA reached an agreement that was signed and it ends in 2032. And for the Master's Golf Tournament started coverage for CBS in 1956. CBS will always be covering the Masters. 

Now let's get into my predictions on the Masters and the final four. I am writing this on Monday, March 27th so on Saturday and Sunday was the elite 8. In the Elite 8 FAU upset Kansas State, Uconn pulled away in the second half to blow out Gonzaga, Miami beat Texas by 7, and late last night the San Diego State Aztecs beat the Crighton Bluejays to move on to the Final Four. This all means that in the Final Four on April first the early game is between Florida Atlantic (9) and San Diego State (5) and the late game compresses Miami (5) and UCONN (4). For the Aztecs and the Owls, I believe that this game will be fairly close until with about 8 minutes to go I think San Diego State will pull away and get to the title game. I think that FAU will collapse because in their matchup with Kansas State for about the first half of the second half Kansas State had a lead ranging from 5-7 points until FAU made a 3 with 9 minutes to go in the game. I thought that KSU should have come out on top and if they did I would have had them to win the championship. (Shoutout to Marquis Nowell by the way)

For our other matchup, Miami and UCONN are 2 extremely talented programs by winning all of their previous games in a dominant fashion. I think that MIAMI played a tougher schedule leading up to this but I still think  UCONN is more of a talented team than the hurricanes and that they will come out on top over the Huskies of UCONN.

Now it is time to talk about and predict the greatest golf tournament on planet earth, also being broadcasted by CBS The Masters. Like it has and ever will be the 2023 Masters Tournament will be held at Agusta National Golf Club in Agusta Georgia. Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, and Rory McIlroy have all held the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Ranking this year and are the top three names in the 2023 Masters odds at Caesars Sportsbook. (CBS Sports). With this from CBS sports I think all 3 of these tour players have a significant chance at winning the tournament but I think Scottie Scheffler the defending champion has the greatest chance to earn the Green Jacket. Coming off wins at the Players Championship and the Waste Management Open, he has a lot of momentum going into the masters. Rahm and Mcilroy should also be at the top of the leaderboard in the tournament also. Also, any of these guys have a legitimate shot at taking the Green Jacket home. Cameron Smith 12-1

Jordan Spieth 15-1

Justin Thomas 16-1

Xander Schauffele 18-1

Tony Finau 20-1

Will Zalatoris 20-1

Collin Morikawa 22-1

Max Homa 22-1

Patrick Cantlay 22-1

Dustin Johnson 25-1 (CBS Sports/Ceasers Sportsbook Odds starting at 4th). Out of all these outstanding PGA Tour Players, I think Finau and Justin Thomas could take the win the weekend of April 6th.

To close out this article about the greatest 2 weeks in the sports calendar year I just wanna say thank you to Jim Nantz and Golf Digest for pubnlishing this amazing article in the Magazine. This years Masters and the Final 4 shouldent be a disappointment as we are in for a thrilling best 2 weeks of the sports year on CBS.

Jake Yono

3/4/23

JY Journalism

Today's Super Saturday In The World Of Sports

Hello everybody, this is my first article for JY Journalism. This article will be about today's exciting day coming up in the world of sports. I will get into UFC 285 between Ciryl Gane Vs. Jon Jones and the rest of the card. The exciting NCAAMB games are on today. And the NBA contests today as we are coming closer to the end of the season.

Let's talk about the NBA today and the teams in the standings. There are 3 games I am going to be keeping my eye on today. First, we have an eastern conference battle as the 7th-place Miami Heat take on the 8th-place Atlanta Hawks. As we are inside 20 games remaining in the season this matchup is a big deal for the play-in-tournament. I have the Miami Heat winning this one on their home court. The 2nd game I'm keeping my eye on is this dark house kind of game between the Sacramento Kings and the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Kings have been a surprise to almost every NBA fan this season as they are currently 3rd in the western conference. They are facing the Timberwolves which are the 7th seed currently in the western conference. I think this game could go either way but I have the kings winning in a close one at home. The 3rd and final NBA game I will be watching is the ABC Primetime game at 8:30 between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Milwaukee Bucks. Milwaukee is currently the #1 seed in the eastern conference and the 76ers are the #3 teams in the eastern conference this game could impact seeding. With the Bucks coming in with a record of 27-5 at home I believe that Giannis Attenkumpto will have a great performance and the Bucks will win. There are also many great NBA games on Sunday also. In my next article, I will be recapping the NBA weekend.

Next, we are moving on to the college basketball world. There are multiple great matchups to watch for but first, we are going to talk about Duke vs UNC. This is the last time both teams were unranked and coming off a loss when they played was Dec. 29, 1950 (Sports Illustrated). This is very surprising as throughout college basketball history these 2 clubs have been very good. The ranked matchups I’m watching for are #2 Alabama facing #24 Texas A&M. Since the game is at Texas A & MI think they have a pretty good chance at upsetting the Crimson Tide. The next game i’m diving into is at 4:00 between the #3 Kansas Jayhawks and the #9 Texas Longhorns. This is a BIG 12 classic but I think Kansas will win on the road as they are the underdog in this BIG 12 battle. My third and final game is another top-10 matchup between the Arizona Wildcats #8 and the #4 UCLA Bruins. Since UCLA is playing at home I have them winning by a solid margin. This wraps up my college basketball section of the article, let’s go to t UFC 287 Jones vs. Gane.

This UFC card is the biggest of the year and the best we have seen in a long time. The main event of the evening is for the vacant heavyweight championship between (11-1) Ciryl Gane and (26-1) arguably the greatest fighter in UFC history Jon Jones. I believe Jon Jones will continue his undefeated career after he hasn't fought in 3 years. In the Co-Main event the UFC flyweight title is on the line. The 7 time defending champion Valentina Shevchenko will take on #6 ranked flyweight contender Alexa Grasso who is on a 4 fight win streak. I have Valentina in this championship bout. Also on the card we have Derek Brunson VS. Darius Du Plesis. This fight could be a UFC fight night main event based on how good it is. But the first fight on the main card is Between DWCS alum Bo Nickal and middleweight contender Jamie Pickett. I am very excited to watch Bo Nickal. In his UFC debut on Pay-Per-View, I think he will win the bout. This card is so electrifying that I think 5 of the fights on it could make a UFC main event. Other fights I’m gonna be watching are Cody Garbrandit Vs Trevin Jones the featured prelim, and a fight on Pay-Per-View featuring (15-4) Geoff Nealand (16-0) Shavkat Rakhmonov from Uzbekistan. I am so ready for the best UFC card of 2023.

Thank you for reading about my first article for the amazing sports day of March 4th 2023.